


revisionist history

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Cooking, Developing Relationship, Director Daisy, Drinking, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Kissing, Male-Female Friendship, Romance, Secrets, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-27 03:49:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13872489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Post S5 AU speculation nonsense and happy endings.





	revisionist history

"Show me."

They had stayed behind and he sent everyone else on assignments because he intended to tell her the truth. He had wanted to since before they had arrived in the future, but there was no right moment then.

This isn't the kind of secret he wants to keep alone. He needs her close. He needs her strength and her sense of rightness.

He realizes that there never may be a right moment, but her face when he had told her that there wasn't any universe where he would leave her behind, Daisy's face, was already reading him like he was an open book.

It takes a moment for him to register her request, and then he starts to unbutton his tattered shirt, watching her eyes fixed on the spot where the ugly vein-like tendrils are spreading out from his heart.

Her eyes move up to his, slowly, holding them, the swirl of emotions there starts to harden, becoming something that looks like defiance, as she slips off from the top of the table and stretches her fingers out towards him.

His instinct is to flinch, but he doesn't. Instead, he freezes, and feels her fingertips make contact with his skin and closes his eyes.

"Does it hurt?" she asks, stopping, as her brows knot together.

"Yes. Sometimes more than others. Not right now."

Reassured, her fingers press against him again, and it's such a relief to not have to carry this alone anymore. He doesn't want to be a burden to her, but he needs her. He needs her help.

Leaving her behind in the future was the most unreasonable request of him he could ever imagine. He doesn't have time to examine the selfishness of it now.

"We're going to figure this out," she tells him. "Just like we always have."

He can't help but smile at that. Whether or not she fully believes it, he can't say. But it's what he needed to hear.

She smiles at him, suddenly becoming aware of where they are and that there's never enough time for moments like this, and starts to button up his shirt for him, nerves kicking in.

"Thanks," he smirks, covering her fingers with his for just a moment before taking over.

"Sure."

  
+++

  
She stays up late combing the database. There is information about the Darkhold here, a lot of it contributed by Piper, but she's looking for something else.

Tracing the history of the Ghost Rider, or, more importantly, his demon hitchhiker.

Shuddering involuntarily at one of the woodcut prints on her screen, she looks closer at it, then looks away.

"That looks terrifying," she hears him say behind her, startling her, leaning in over her shoulder to get a closer look.

"Hey, maybe more warning next time?"

"Sorry," he says with a shrug and moves to sit on the edge of the bed, holding a cup of coffee between his hands.

"It's like I can hear the nuns of St. Agnes whispering that this is for every scary movie I snuck as a kid," she says, hunched over the laptop at her small table.

"That's for you, if you need it," he tells her, holding out the mug to her.

"Thanks," she smiles at him, shutting the laptop closed and turning in her chair to face him as she takes the cup and sips. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I'm dying."

She's used to him joking about that at this point, but can't quite muster up the energy to laugh at his bad jokes.

"Well, that's definitely the last time you should cut a deal for supreme power with someone who lights your head on fire."

"You're right. That should've tipped me off," he agrees, yawning.

"Are you sure you don't need this?" she asks, holding the coffee back out towards him.

He shakes his head in answer, and she thinks about him, how he's trying so hard to put up a front and she stands up and goes to shut the door to he quarters quietly.

"Does this mean I'm about to get a lecture?" he asks, eyebrows raised, looking up at her as she comes to stand in front of him.

"I'm going to be up for hours, but, why don't you get some rest?" She puts her hand on his shoulder, and he closes his eyes. "I'll wake you."

He doesn't argue with her, just lets her help him shift until he's lying on his side, and she slips his shoes off.

When she sits back at the table, she looks at him one more time before opening the laptop again.

He's already asleep and she feels less afraid now.

  
+++

  
"I told you I'd never let you go in any universe."

"That was my line," he reminds her. "And I also said you'd never destroy the Earth. Looks like I was right about that, too."

"You just know me better than I know myself," she says, trying to hold back a smile, her fingers twisting together.

She wishes that Robbie would flame off for a moment, so she could thank him, or hug him. Robbie probably needs a hug.

"I owe you one," she says to him instead. "And to be specific, I'm talking to Robbie, not...the other guy."

He turns away from them, and takes the chain off his shoulder, spinning it until a portal opens in the fabric of space, and he steps through it.

Then it closes and they are alone again.

"So this is what it feels like to be one of your exploits," he starts. "Not so bad."

"Phil."

His first name is all she can manage and they move towards each other and embrace. He wasn't gone for that long, it was like it was yesterday and it was like it was forever.

Sending him away broke the time loop, like Elena said her future self predicted.

The team had to stop the world from ending, and there wasn't any time to explain all of it, to have them question her plan. Boy, are they going to be pissed.

They'll get over it. It's part of the job to keep secrets when you have to.

"I'm home," he tells her with a soft smile, pulling back to look at her. He looks exactly the same as the day he left. "How did you manage-"

"I'll tell you about it later," she smiles. "Right now, I think we'd better let our friends know that you're alive."

"Not just yet," he pauses, hugging her back against him. "I just want...a moment. I've missed you, Daisy."

Her complicated feelings for him work their way to the surface again, and she tries to not think about how nicely she fits here. How all that she's ever wanted was to love someone so completely and not lose them.

And outside this room, there's so much work that needs to be done.

  
+++

 

"Who said that you can't have it all?"

She's looking at his cocky expression as he's laid out on the couch on her office, snacking on something.

"You never had it all," she reminds him, pushing the paperwork away, standing up from behind her desk and walking towards him.

"Good thing you're not me," he replies, swinging his legs off the couch to sit up and make room for her beside him.

She unbuttons the single-button blazer and then sits down beside him on the couch as he offers her the bag of junk food, which she reluctantly dips into.

Simmons has been trying to get her to eat healthier, and set an example for the rest of the recruits, instead of living off coffee and junk food.

"You could've warned me about the red tape," she says, crunching down on the chip.

"It's only gotten worse, with the anti-Inhuman legislation," he says with a shake of his head. "I'm always here to help."

"Yeah, I can see that," she chuckles, as he pulls the bag just out of her reach.

"Doctor's orders," he chides her.

"Have I ever told you that you came back from the Bad Place with a little extra something?"

"Are you suggesting that somehow it rubbed off on me?"

She leans across him and grabs the bag out of his grip and shakes her head at him. "Hold on, we were talking about me having it all."

"I guess it depends on what you want."

It makes her pause in her tracks. Maybe she's just imagining it, or it's the tone in his voice.

She starts to say something snarky back and stops herself. She wants lots of things. She wants to know he's looking at her that way, and not that she's imagining it.

"More time. More time for," she has to duck her head now, or she'll start to blush. "This."

He makes a small sound, like he's surprised and pleased at the same time.

"In that case," he tells her, with a smile in his voice. "We'll need another bag of chips."

  
+++

  
"Nice."

She steps through the door and looks around the small single room and then hears the beeping noise of a timer going off.

"Dinner," he says, rushing past her and motioning back at her. "Can you get the door?"

Closing it behind her, she sets the locks on it and looks around again at the safehouse. It's one from her time when she was on the run, after Hive. And it looks so different now, it actually looks like a home.

"Smells great. I see you've been busy," she tells him, moving into the kitchen area and smiling at the look of him in an apron, pulling things out of the oven.

"Wanted to make your first anniversary as Director special," he says to her as she hears the sound of a cork popping.

He turns around to her and holds out a glass of champagne and then pours another for himself. "Cheers."

She lifts her eyebrows at him, and he sets his glass down and starts to take the apron off, which she slightly regrets until she sees the t-shirt on underneath it.

"That's the music festival we went to when-" she grins, reaching out her hand to both touch it and get him closer to her.

"Our first date," he finishes. "Except for the asset extraction, it was sort of like a date."

"That wasn't our first date," she smiles at him, taking a long drink of the champagne and looking up at him over the glass.

"Okay," he shrugs and reaches behind him for the bottle. "I'll bite." He watches her expression carefully as she hands her glass to him and he fills her flute again.

"The first time you took me for a ride in Lola," she explains, taking off her suit jacket. "I said yes and never looked back."

His smile gets wider and he sets the glasses down on the counter, and wraps his free hand around her waist, and pulls her in closer to him.

"Revisionist history," he says, lowering his tone. " _I like it_."

She doesn't want to ruin dinner - he probably worked so hard to make it absolutely perfect - but she kisses him like dinner isn't the only option on the table, and his hands start to undo the buttons of her dress shirt as he walks her backwards towards it.

"Phil?"

He picks her up and sets her on the edge of the dining table, his hands on her thighs, considering the question for a moment.

"It can wait," he says, kissing her softly on the corner of her mouth, then putting his lips against her ear. "You can't."

She really can't.


End file.
